The Outer Lands
by Verpine
Summary: The Greil mercenaries are running out of jobs in the aftermath of Ashera's defeat.  In order to keep the coffers full, they decide to leave Tellius, along with a few friends from the old wars, to discover new lands.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Since the defeat of the Goddess Ashera by the chosen ones a year ago, Tellius has regained a sense of normalcy. All of the nations affected by the war struggle to rebuild their lands. The people of Tellius all realize how close they came to destruction at the hands of their enraged goddess, and pledge themselves to a new era of peace. While they know now that the peace cannot last forever, they will do whatever they can to keep the peace lasting as long as possible. All of the countries have new, young leaders that will remember Ashera and the cost of war for a long period of time.

Crimea's young queen, Elincia, continues her kind and benevolent rule of her subjects, aiding the southern country in its reconstruction since the march of Begnion's central army through her lands. She married her long time friend and knight Geoffrey shortly after the fall of Ashera, and will soon grace the kingdom with an heir. Gallia prospers under the rule of Skrimir and his advisor Ranulf. The people are saddened by the heavy loss of soldiers during the war with Begnion, but do what they can to move past the pain o their loss, and help with the reconstruction of the neighboring countries, like they did after the Mad King's War.

The Dragon tribe of Goldoa took murderous losses in the Tower of Guidance, including the death of the country's first King, Deghinsea. Deghinsea's younger son Kurthnaga took the throne after his father, and did what he could to open Goldoa to outsiders for the first time in its history.

The surviving Hawks, Ravens, and Herons, formed a single Bird tribe nation. The Ravens in particular felt a great need to help those whom they had harmed in both of the recent wars. Tibarn became the first King of the Unified Bird Tribe Nation. Naesala married Leanne and established a home among the trees in the central part of the Serenes Forest.

Begnion slowly settled down under the rule of now Empress Sanaki. The revelation of Sanaki's true birth came as a blow to the devout people of Begnion, as did the betrayal by the Senators, their supposed representatives in the government. However, remembering the former Apostles just actions of the past, most of the people of Begnion had only to struggle with a lack of self identity, and the devastation visited upon their lands by war.

Daein continued its interrupted reconstruction period with renewed vigor under the guidance of their new Queen, their much beloved Priestess of Dawn. With the fall of Ashera, many Daeins came to see her (to her chagrin) as a second, much greater Goddess. This was only accentuated by her continual youthful appearance, which came as a result of being Branded. She married her lover Sothe the morning after the defeat of Ashera, and he continues to aid her in helping the people of Daein.

While none can say that peace is a bad thing, it does have a side effect of putting mercenaries out of business. Without any threats from neighboring countries, nations can focus on removing brigands and pirates. Losing their income, some mercenaries turn to brigandage themselves, or more commonly, become absorbed by the local military forces. Others simply abandon fighting, and become common workers.

Needless to say, the Greil Mercenaries, under Commander Ike, the twice Hero of Tellius, didn't succumb or disband. Their love of each other, combat, and the common people prevented any separation. However, their dwindling coffers demanded gold, and with that in mind, Ike decided to set out in search of new lands, where the land had not fallen victim to an epidemic of peace.


	2. Leaving

Early in the morning of the last day at the fort, the Greil mercenaries had gathered in the meeting room of their fort to hear the official announcement of their departure. Everyone there already knew the portents of Ike's proposal, and all were set on going. The whole process was really just a formality.

Ike came out of his office, closely followed by Soren and stood in front of the small assembly of the the mercenaries and a few other friends from the Mad King's war and the more recent Goddess's war.

He glanced around the room at the people in it, seeing everyone; Titania, Mist, the three brothers, his sister Mist, Mia, Rhys, Gatrie and Shinon, all from the mercenaries; as well as a handful of friends who had decided to come along with the main group, Lethe, Marcia, Zihark, and Ilyana, who had been bored, missing old friends, seeking a new place, and hungry respectively. Or at least, those had been the reasons they specified.

Ike smiled at the new members of the mercenaries, and they (excluding Lethe) all smiled in return. Lethe simply nodded.

Ike stopped in front of his audience and took a deep breath. It was probably a good thing that everyone present knew him, and knew that he wasn't exactly a speechmaker.

"Hello everyone," Ike began, "Today, is the day we set out. Our goodbyes have been said, our equipment is packed, and are ship is ready to leave as soon as we get to Port Toha.  
>I know that you all know this already," he continued, "But to clarify, we are leaving for one reason, that being our decided lack of money. Any other reasons are your own.<br>For myself, I want to explore new lands and help more people with my skills. I will be going on this journey no matter what, but I would like any of you who are not one hundred percent committed to this mission to leave now," he paused for a moment and looked around the room. No one moved, or showed any expression whatsoever of discontent. Mia was literally quivering with excitement.

"Very well, Greil mercenaries and auxiliaries, assemble in the courtyard in five minutes," he said, and their was a shuffle to grab bags and weapons. Mia had already bolted out of the door by the time he said, "assemble" and was currently jumping up and down in the courtyard just to let out excess energy. Titania, Oscar, and Mist left the room to see to their horses, and Marcia also exited to prepare her pegasus. Ike was especially heartened to see her come, because her pegasus would bring them many tactical advantages in any combat, but particularly any ship to ship combat that might occur between themselves and the world's inevitable pirates and corsairs.

The room emptied and Ike was left standing next to his friend Soren to look around the meeting room of the fort for probably the last time. Ike sighed, and Soren simply looked at him askance. Ike rolled his eyes at that, picked up his bag of provisions and strapped the twin swords Alondite and Ragnell to his back, and followed the rest of the mercenaries outside, where he saw most of them doing final checks on their equipment and supplies.

Within a few minutes, everyone was gathered into the courtyard. The day was a typical one for late spring in Crimea, the snow had long sense receded, the sun was shining merrily down on them, and the clouds were few and far between in the sky. Ike glanced quickly at the sky to check for rain clouds, but saw none. He then turned to the assembled mercenaries and drew in a breath to announce briefly.

"Greil mercenaries! Move out!"

Author's note:Sorry about the lateness of this update. I have been having trouble writing these primarily due to lack of time, and the fact that (this is going to sound insane) I just got Radiant Dawn last week, and I have been playing it more or less non stop ever since. I already knew everything that happened because I watched several walkthoughs on you tube out of sheer frustration about not being able to play the silly thing until just recently. Other than that, I have been having to study and practice for AP exams, and anyone who has taken one of those will know how fun _that_ is.


	3. Halt in progress

I am REALLY sorry about the lack of updates since... forever. I have simply not been in a Fire Emblem mood. Combine that with college starting up, a LOT of computer issues (I only just got Word to work two weeks ago), and the fact that I have spent 32 Nights of the summer camping have basiacally stopped all production on these stories. I am putting this information on both of the Fire Emblem stories that I have going as a sort of official signal of hiatus for both stories. I will get back to them as soon as I start feeling like Fire Emblem again. I have just been in a Fallout mood lately, and have actually started a story for that. I greatly appreciate the handful of reviews that both of my stories have recieved, and I WILL be getting back to them. I will probably get back to work on them within a few weeks or so, whenever I start playing Radiant Dawn again, but for the moment, both the Outer Lands and the Journey are on hiatus. They are NOT discontinued.

I also apoligize to anyone who sees the update and thinks it is an actual update, it is not unfortunately.


End file.
